Frogs are long considered essential players in a balanced ecosystem; eating insects, keeping waterways clean, as a tasty meal for birds and fish or as a natural control measure for diseases like dengue and malaria spread by mosquitos.

The 2024 Daniel Gilmore scholarship supported ecology researcher, and frog lover,  Amanda Poh. Amanda’s honours research analysed alternate carriers (vectors) of chytridiomycosis, a deadly fungus that attacks the skin and nerves of frogs.

Frogs use their skin for respiration, and this fungus makes it difficult for the frog to breathe, while also damaging their nervous systems which affects frog behaviour.

Amanda Poh

It has caused mass amphibian die-offs and devastated amphibian populations globally, including Australia. Decades since its discovery, the disease continues to spread despite strict biosecurity laws restricting the movement of amphibians. The disease has been recorded in four regions of Australia. The east coast, south-west Western Australia, Adelaide and central Kimberley.

According to the NSW Government the Chytrid fungus is probably transferred by direct contact between frogs and tadpoles or through exposure to infected water.

Poh decided to focus instead on non-amphibians (insects) to see if they are also contributing to the spread of the virus, as she explained “non-amphibians are not included in current biosecurity measures to address this disease and may therefore be contributing significantly to disease spread by acting as alternative hosts or vectors. This is a relatively unexplored area of research, with only one species of crayfish identified as competent non-amphibian vectors of the disease to date.”

Golden Bell and Growling Grass Frogs

Research in Victorian Freshwater Habitats

Amanda focused her research on freshwater habitats in Victoria and New South Wales, where Litoria frog populations are declining to see if freshwater invertebrates have pathogens present.

Her team from the University of Melbourne, Dr Laura Brannelly and Dr Perran Stott-Ross, swabbed Green and Golden Bell Frogs and Growling Grass Frogs to confirm the presence of the deadly fungus in the study region.

They then collected over a thousand freshwater invertebrates from the same sites and screened them for the presence of pathogenic DNA using molecular techniques.

Non-biting midge (left), a water scavenger beetle (top right) and a water boatman (bottom right).

The results confirmed Poh’s concern “Alarmingly, we detected the presence of the amphibian fungal pathogen in three batch-samples of invertebrates, including water boatmen, non-biting midges and water scavenger beetles.”

Poh concluded that that while more research is needed to investigate experimental (under-recognised) infection and transmission capability for these groups as competent vectors, the three invertebrate groups that tested positive in this study are ideal candidates for future vector studies.

“Our results suggest that associations between the amphibian fungal pathogen and invertebrates might be more widespread than previously recognised, highlighting how little we know about the role of non-amphibians in the spread of chytridiomycosis and the urgent need for further research to inform our conservation strategies.”

How did Amanda use the Daniel Gilmore Scholarship Funds

The Daniel Gilmore Scholarship helped relieve some of Amanda’s financial pressures in 2024 and 2025 and allowed her to buy a new laptop for research purposes. For Amanda, however, the scholarship was more than money, “Just as importantly, it was motivating to know that others believed in the value of this work enough to support it. I look forward to seeing how this field of research develops and hope to continue contributing to amphibian conservation research.”

Congratulations Amanda Poh on committing to such important research to support conservation efforts for Australian threatened species.

Daniel Gilmore is right there alongside you.